"Tell us about it Janet!"
There's this film festival in my home town, Ostend. It's not that special, and in the past 5 years, I might have gone to three shows - and one (2 eps of a Battlestar Galactica season I think) got cancelled, so yeah. In fact, the first year was probably their best year as they had a lot more variety than they do now.
Anyway - a few days ago I randomly discovered they're showing Rocky Horror Picture Show. Later I found out the reason; Peter Suschitzky, who was the director of photography on this, is one of the guests this year.
There wasn't much info on the site, so I wasn't sure if this was going to be a 'special' showing where they encourage audience interaction, or a normal one. Being in Belgium, and in a boring seaside town, I had my money on a normal showing, with hardly anyone showing up, and -maybe- some people dressing up. Also, the show was at 5.15PM, on a weekday, so it wouldn't really attract a lot of out-of-towners.
But whatever. I put on the fanciest clothes I could find (going for the narrator look, but not quite succeeding) and off I go. Choosing the fanciest mode of transportation - the coastal tram! Got my ticket. Got into the room 10 minutes before the start. Near empty, so I take a spot somewhere in the middle. More people come in, far more than expected. Lots of young girls for some reason? A lot of them sit right behind me, boo. Also... a group of people dressed up! Well... most of them were just wearing cheap colourful carnival wigs and whatnot over their regular clothes. Well it's the thought that counts, and I was curious if they would be using any props. They were sitting in the back row, so I turned my head during the wedding scene, and yup! They were throwing rice! They did the usual stuff as far as I could see/hear. I think it might have annoyed the more serious people - I mean if you're new to RHPC it might just seem like a few drunk people causing a ruckus, and randomly shining flashlights at the screen! (of course it's not random, but if this is the first time seeing the film you might not get all the links!)
As for me, probably to the shock and amusement of the schoolgirls behind me, I sang - badly of course - along with a few songs, laughed at a lot of the little things that amuse me (and those are plentiful), and had a great time, even on my lonesome. I noticed a few details I hadn't noticed on previous viewings; the bigger screen certainly helped. The "nipslips" (surely this movie invented them?) are far more noticeable on a large screen as well heh.
They stopped the projection during the credits because they had a "surprise" - the director of photography was actually there!! We could ask him questions - this being Boring Belgium, no-one had a question of course. I had a lame back-up question but was too embarrassed to ask, and of course on my way home I think up a good one, that's typically Tem. ...I've forgotten it already though. And that's just old age.
Anyway - one of the guys at the back, who I'm pretty sure was the guy who laughed at basically everything, but especially Frank seducing Brad and Janet separately but in the exact same way - said he already did a show like this in Germany, which had a lot more people participating - well duh, I doubt that one was on a Wednesday afternoon in a little town. I've also learned that the girls sitting behind me were high school girls accompanied by their teacher!!! Funny. One of the girls complained that this isn't the sort of movie their teacher should take them to. She has a point in a way, but then again not - even if you don't "get" it overall, it has quite a few themes that can make a good class discussion. As for being inappropriate, in high school I saw Trainspotting (English class) and A Clockwork Orange (Ethics) which probably also aren't movies you should see as a teen. Then again, maybe you should, as I got older I got to see both of those in a different light, learned how to 'read between the lines' and actually get them.
And both are now two of my favourite movies of all time.
They might not have been if there wasn't some sort of learning process involved. I'm going quite off-topic with this but there was a discussion on my favourite/most hated (it's both) forum on the internet, NeoGAF, about Fight Club. Someone said it's a different movie when you watch it as a teen and then watch it again in your twenties or later. I have to agree with this. When I was a teen I liked A Clockwork Orange and Fight Club because of the violence, yo dude violence is cool hur hur. But then later I started appreciating movies in different ways, and I started to get the messages I missed as a teen. Nowadays, I can both enjoy the gratuitous violence in these movies (I am still a boy after all), AND understand the underlying (or actually super-obvious) themes.
It probably also helps that all four of the movies I mentioned here are coming-of-age stories, which I quite like in general. Coming-of-age stories in a very twisted way, maybe, but think about it. (actually a lot of my favourite movies seem to have coming-of-age elements in them - Amélie, Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon, Let the Right One in, just to name three more)
Back on topic - I had a great time and I'm happy I went even if I couldn't find any friends to go with. My friends in London are also fans and want to take me along to something like this, complete with dressing up, participating and everything. The hardest part is finding a date that suits all of us. It will happen though. Eventually. Don't dream it...
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